Meditated through the night!
Jiang Ming opened his eyes from meditation with a dark expression. He had been startled awake by the system notification.
"Congratulations, Host, for causing the death of half a benefactor, Master Zhang. Random reward obtained: ten thousand taels of gold. It has automatically been placed in the Host's Sea of Bitterness. Please check it."
He had merely killed a great villain among mortals. Was there really a need to specifically mention "half a benefactor"? He had only stayed there for one night, gotten a set of clothes, some wine, and a little silver, yet it had to be like this...
Fine!
Jiang Ming felt that a bit of gold was still a decent reward.
His Life-Bound Sword circled the ten thousand taels of gold once. The ten thousand taels immediately became a thousand, while the surplus gold had its metal essence devoured by the Life-Bound Sword and turned into dust.
As Jiang Ming gently exhaled, the impurities within his Sea of Bitterness were expelled through his breathing technique.
For his Life-Bound Sword to grow, it needed to devour all kinds of Five Elements essences, as well as certain other essences.
It was much like how Rogue Cultivators could refine Refined Gold from iron ore to temper armor and magical artifacts.
As for Master Zhang's death, Jiang Ming admitted that he had done it. The bones of pitiful people buried in that man's back garden had not even gone cold. He considered it ridding the people of a scourge.
His path of cultivation had only just begun, and he could not slack off. He bore a deep blood feud and had to destroy that flock of Lightning Birds to avenge Smoke Glow Fairy and Lingzhi.
And that Three Yin Cold Lotus had to be harvested as well. It was Lingzhi's final wish.
Besides, Shrouding the Heavens was a dangerous world. If he failed to grow stronger in the future, he might as well kill himself and see whether he could transmigrate again.
Jiang Ming skillfully transformed into a Pangolin. Covered in a hazy yellow glow, he used its innate Earth Escape to leave the stone chamber a thousand meters underground and return to the surface.
Outside was naturally the cold, yin-filled Fallen Phoenix Ridge. Who would have thought that this was a world beneath a ten-thousand-meter abyss, occupied by countless centipedes?
Unfortunately, after yesterday's battle, all the top-tier centipedes had died.
With no clothes to wear, Jiang Ming transformed into the Six-Eared Macaque and swiftly leaped between the cliffs, climbing upward and leaving Fallen Phoenix Ridge.
Once Jiang Ming had left the area, he looked back at the land and felt that the abyss had originally been carved out by an icy attack.
This ravine stretched as far as the eye could see, spanning several thousand li. So this was how it had come to be.
His next tasks were clear: fill his stomach, then catch a demonic beast and refine a set of clothes.
Using the Six-Eared Macaque's talent, Jiang Ming quickly locked onto the loudest creature. It was an oversized saber-toothed azure tiger with a pair of wings, savage and ferocious. Early in the morning, its roars were the most irritatingly loud.
This was a vicious tiger comparable to a Life Spring cultivator. Ordinary Life Spring cultivators did not even dare provoke it. It was an overlord-class savage beast in this region.
When Jiang Ming arrived, the saber-toothed azure tiger had just finished hunting. Beneath its claws, a red-feathered crane lay in a pool of blood.
This saber-toothed azure tiger had quite picky tastes. The beasts on the ground could no longer satisfy it, so it had set its sights on the nearby clan of red-feathered cranes. This was even a red-feathered crane comparable to a Life Spring cultivator. It truly was unlucky.
Logically speaking, demonic beasts of the same realm found it difficult to hunt and kill one another.
This saber-toothed azure tiger was likely close to transforming into a demonic beast comparable to a Divine Bridge cultivator.
Moreover, the saber-toothed azure tiger's bloodline was unusual. With the Six-Eared Macaque's Fiery Golden Eyes, Jiang Ming could see a strand of Xun Wind Essence within its body.
Tigers all inherited some bloodline from the Primordial Antiquity vicious beast, the White Tiger. Yet after countless ages, everything had become incredibly diluted.
However, during the cultivation of tiger-type savage beasts, either through mutation or by consuming some heavenly treasure, a tiny bit of their potential could sometimes be awakened.
Xun Wind Essence counted as a rather good inherited power.
It was comparable to that Golden Centipede's Geng Metal Essence.
As the saying went, arriving early was not as good as arriving at the right time.
This time, he had both clothes and food taken care of?
Clang—
A sword cry like a phoenix's call rang out. A streak of crimson radiance flashed and vanished, and Jiang Ming's Life-Bound Sword had already pierced through the saber-toothed azure tiger's head.
This was truly a fine treasure. Not only had it transformed into a Spirit Artifact, its sharpness and power were enough to rival a mid-grade Spirit Artifact.
Boom!
The saber-toothed azure tiger was six meters long and four meters tall at the shoulder. Its fur was entirely azure, even gleaming with azure light beneath the sun. With its wings spread, they reached ten meters across.
The red-feathered crane it had hunted was eight meters long, with a wingspan of twelve meters. Yet it had still been hunted by Jiang Ming.
It had two fatal wounds. One was on its chest, as though it had been pierced by a sharp blade. The other was on its head, which had nearly been cut in half by a sharp blade.
The Xun Wind Essence had bestowed upon the saber-toothed azure tiger the innate ability Xun Wind Blade, incomparably sharp and capable of cutting through anything.
Furthermore, bolstered by the Xun Wind Essence, the saber-toothed azure tiger's speed became even faster. Even the red-feathered crane, adept at flying, had found it difficult to escape.
Jiang Ming's Life-Bound Sword directly devoured that strand of Xun Wind Essence.
Next, Jiang Ming skinned the tiger and plucked some crane feathers.
Using his Life-Bound Sword as a barbecue skewer, he began roasting the red-feathered crane.
He also took out the spare Green Wood Sword to roast skewers of tiger meat.
At the same time, Jiang Ming directly transformed into Three Heads and Six Arms. While barbecuing, he formed one hand seal after another, using beast blood as ink to inscribe Dao Patterns.
A huge tiger hide grew smaller and smaller under Jiang Ming's work, until it finally became a white robe.
As for the red-feathered crane's feathers, he refined them into threads that formed the Formation Patterns within the robe.
Fortunately, he had learned some methods for refining magical artifacts and dharma robes in his previous life. As Shushan's number one genius, he learned everything quickly. On the endless journey of cultivation, if one failed to become an Earth Immortal and ascend, one would ultimately turn into a handful of Yellow Earth.
Cultivators in the Immortal Sword World had shorter lifespans than even those in Shrouding the Heavens, unless they became Immortals and ascended.
Therefore, when it came to lifespan, Jiang Ming felt this world was extremely reasonable.
It gave him far more years to live than his previous two lives.
A Great Emperor could live for ten thousand years, and with an Undying Divine Medicine, could live another Lifetime. That was truly blissful.
And so, he had refined a low-grade magical artifact.
The key was that the materials used to refine it were good enough. If he had not been rather amateurish at this, a professional refining a dharma robe with care could have easily produced a mid-grade dharma robe.
They might even have refined three to five of them.
After all, Jiang Ming had wasted so much tiger hide and so many red-feathered crane feathers.
Even Jiang Ming had to admit that his craftsmanship in refining dharma robes was a little lacking.
But his barbecuing skills were absolutely first-rate in this world.
Using the Long-Armed Ape's bodily control and its spatial talent, Jiang Ming compressed the roasted meat from the two enormous savage beasts and strange birds down to the size of ordinary roast lamb and roast chicken.
He began to feast heartily. For Qi Refining Stage cultivators, refining heavenly treasures meant they would not starve to death even without food.
However, Jiang Ming still wanted to preserve the habit of enjoying food. That way, he could constantly remind himself that he was a person, not a monster.
Jiang Ming's memories and experience from Earth told him that even cultivators had to hold fast to their original hearts. Only by never forgetting one's original intention could one reach the end.
Even if he fell into demonic cultivation, he could not lose his humanity.
Whether demon or God, they had to be governed by one's own true heart and will. That was the path of cultivation.
For a hundred li around, this place was the saber-toothed azure tiger's territory. The surrounding savage beasts and strange birds did not dare approach.
That made it convenient for Jiang Ming to refine his dharma robe here.
A real dharma robe!
Until Jiang Tingting and Jiang Tang were taken to the Jiang Family, Jiang Ming needed to keep a low profile. Therefore, he refined a white monk's robe to match his identity as the monk Sanzang.
A saber-toothed azure tiger and a red-feathered crane were eaten by Jiang Ming until only bones remained. He even smashed the bones and sucked out the marrow.
"Burp!"
Jiang Ming let out a satisfied burp. That meal had been wonderful. After testing it out, this physique was truly powerful. No wonder it could support the innate treasure technique, Seventy-Two Transformations.
Although Jiang Ming used the Seventy-Two Transformations with apparent ease and could transform into whatever vicious beast he wished, that was mainly because his physical body and origin were strong enough to sustain the consumption of the innate treasure technique.
If an ordinary cultivator such as Elder Han had been given the same innate treasure technique, Seventy-Two Transformations, he would not have been able to transform at will. Even after transforming, he could only maintain it for a very limited time.
In particular, with old Han's physique, transforming into ordinary savage beasts would be manageable. But if he transformed into Primordial Species or vicious beasts whose physique and origin far exceeded his own, he probably could not last even one or two minutes.
The same secret technique or treasure art produced completely different effects in different hands.
It was time to leave!
Jiang Ming put on the white robe and transformed into the devastatingly handsome monk Sanzang. He was preparing to visit his old friend, Elder Han of Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven.
He remembered that the original plot had described how Ye Fan discovered that something seemed to be hidden beneath the stone steps at the front gate of Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven.
Perhaps he could go take a look. If there was some decent inheritance, he could learn it.
He could also borrow Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven's cultivation grounds to enter seclusion for a while.
Moreover, Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven had another elder named Han Yishui. He was a Divine Bridge cultivator, Elder Han's elder brother, and would also become Jiang Ming's close friend.
Han Yishui also had ten disciples, including Divine Bridge cultivators, Life Spring cultivators, and Sea of Bitterness cultivators. Jiang Ming remembered that Elder Han Yishui and his disciples would sooner or later be killed by Ye Fan. As their elder brother and uncle, while they were still alive, he would urge those nephews to be kind and not learn from their master.
It had to be said that once Ye Fan descended upon Emperor-Burial Star, Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven would bring Jiang Ming several buckets of gold.
He had just broken through to the seventh level of the Qi Refining Stage, so he would steady himself a little and experience the differences between this body and his body from his previous life at the same realm.
For example, in this life, at the seventh level of the Qi Refining Stage, he had easily refined his Life-Bound Sword into a Spirit Artifact.
In his previous life, he had not accomplished that until reaching the Tenth Qi Refining Stage.
Thinking back to when he had refined his Life-Bound Sword, that Immortal Phoenix Divine Form had been the greatest reason his Life-Bound Sword advanced so easily.
His original plan had been that the Phoenix Blood Crystal might also allow his Life-Bound Sword to transform into a Spirit Artifact, but it definitely would not have been as powerful as it was now.
The saber-toothed azure tiger had truly been powerful. Even its bones were suitable as precious materials for artifact refinement.
Otherwise, Jiang Ming would not have used his Life-Bound Sword to devour the Five Elements essence and wind-attribute essence contained within those bones.
As the saying went, even a mosquito was meat.
The red-feathered crane bones could not be spared either.
Among the crane bones, the fire-attribute essence was somewhat more abundant than the others.
Whirr!
The Life-Bound Sword circled the tiger and crane bones once, leaving behind a pile of dry white powder.